That we are experiencing a very unusual summer is no news to anybody as it has been the topic of discussion in almost every household for many weeks.
While most parts of western Canada has been receiving unprecedented amounts of precipitation for this time of the year, there are also pockets of drought, where conditions are again described as “extreme.”
There is no surprise in the fact that climate activists once again interpret these conditions as evidence that the trend of global warming has upset the balance of the nature, leading to the conditions we are experiencing here in North America as well as to other unprecedented weather phenomena in South America, Europe and Asia. Again, it is just the routine for the cynics to dismiss these claims by environmentalists as nonsense.
Yet, every passing day, science is providing us with more clues that we have been transforming the planet in a way that allows little room for undoing the damage that is being inflicted by our zealous efforts to grow our economies and to multiply our profits faster.
The latest evidence that the scientific community has presented us with regard to our harming of the nature comes from the surface of the oceans.
Scientists say that he amount of phytoplankton - tiny marine plants - in the top layers of the oceans has declined markedly over the last century.
Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of the oceans’ fisheries, scientists say.
Research has shown that the world has seen a phytoplankton decline of about 40 per cent since 1950, the period when post-war economic recovery skyrocketed on a global scale.
Research has shown one more thing: “What we think is happening is that the oceans are becoming more stratified as the water warms,” said research leader Daniel Boyce from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
That is undeniable link between the loss of phytoplankton and global warming.
This new evidence should provide some good food for thought as to how we should be changing our ways if we are to leave a decently preserved environment to generations that will inhabit our planet in the future.
It looks like we need many more creative “natural” solutions to our problems like the one reported in last week’s Independent regarding the use of goats to reclaim grazing land near Donalda.
Mother Nature probably has many more solutions for similar problems. We only need to look for them and be prepared to change our life patterns for a healthier global village.
— Mustafa Eric